Solutions Engineer, SLED (MA/CT)
AI in this role
Drive technical sales strategies and design networking, cloud, and security solutions for public sector and education customers.
Meet the Team
As part of the U.S. Public sector team at Cisco, you’ll have the opportunity to serve customers who protect, serve, and educate their citizens.
You’ll be joining a group of highly technical individuals with a passion for helping customers solve complex technical challenges by leveraging our best-in-class Cisco portfolio.
You will have a chance to create a real impact across your customer base while being part of a team that fosters continuous learning and growth.
Your Impact
As a Solutions Engineer, you will be at the forefront of our technical strategy, working closely with our SLED customers to understand their unique business and technical needs.
You will be covering a variety of different verticals including K12, Higher Education, and local governments and leveraging your expertise to design and implement cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to serve their constituents.
- Dive into our customers’ business to gain a comprehensive understanding of their challenges and opportunities and develop technical strategies where Cisco can be positioned to help our customers.
- Work alongside our partners, architecture teams, and CX organization to ensure the successful adoption and optimization of our solutions.
- Establish a partnership with your Account Manager to drive a robust pipeline by focusing on discovery, demos, and deliverables that showcase the value of our portfolio.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with our customers by conducting regular in-person meetings and non-transactional touchpoints to foster trust and collaboration.
- Stay ahead of the curve with an always learning mindset to stay up to date on industry trends and competitive strategy
Minimum Qualifications
- 5+ years in a customer facing, field-sales engineering role or network engineering role
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
- Experience with Cisco technologies, including networking, security, collaboration, or cloud solutions
- Proven track record of consistently exceeding sales quotas
Preferred Qualifications
- CCNP/CCDP or similar vendor certification
- Understanding of emerging technologies including, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), AI/ML, DevOps, and cloud solutions (AWS/Azure/GCP)
- Proficiency with Python, RESTCONF, NETCONF, YANG Suite, Ansible, Terraform
- Hands-on experience with core Cisco technologies including, IOS-XE, Firepower, Meraki, NX-OS, ACI, and NDFC
- Strong technical presentation skills with demonstrated experience articulating a complex technical solution to both technical and non-technical audiences, including C-level executives
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:The starting salary range posted for this position is $218,600.00 to $286,100.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:
10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
.75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$229,000.00 - $344,700.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$218,600.00 - $329,000.00* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
How we rate this
Solutions Engineer, SLED (MA/CT) at Cisco rates 10 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where sales engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where networking was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where security was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where cloud solutions was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where devops was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Sales Engineering, Networking, Security, Cloud Solutions, and Devops. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
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